diff --git a/public/src/ajaxify.js b/public/src/ajaxify.js
index 04bcb6949e..63f590bc12 100644
--- a/public/src/ajaxify.js
+++ b/public/src/ajaxify.js
@@ -434,7 +434,7 @@ ajaxify = window.ajaxify || {};
 	};
 
 	ajaxify.loadTemplate = function (template, callback) {
-		require([config.assetBaseUrl + '/templates/' + template + '.js'], callback, function (err) {
+		require([config.asset_base_url + '/templates/' + template + '.js'], callback, function (err) {
 			console.error('Unable to load template: ' + template);
 			throw err;
 		});
diff --git a/public/src/modules/translator.js b/public/src/modules/translator.js
index 00572536d5..eb40cf658f 100644
--- a/public/src/modules/translator.js
+++ b/public/src/modules/translator.js
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 (function (factory) {
 	function loadClient(language, namespace) {
 		return new Promise(function (resolve, reject) {
-			jQuery.getJSON([config.assetBaseUrl, 'language', language, namespace].join('/') + '.json?' + config['cache-buster'], function (data) {
+			jQuery.getJSON([config.asset_base_url, 'language', language, namespace].join('/') + '.json?' + config['cache-buster'], function (data) {
 				const payload = {
 					language: language,
 					namespace: namespace,
diff --git a/src/controllers/api.js b/src/controllers/api.js
index 1194a75399..7474f6e7a0 100644
--- a/src/controllers/api.js
+++ b/src/controllers/api.js
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ const apiController = module.exports;
 
 const relative_path = nconf.get('relative_path');
 const upload_url = nconf.get('upload_url');
+const asset_base_url = nconf.get('asset_base_url');
 const socketioTransports = nconf.get('socket.io:transports') || ['polling', 'websocket'];
 const socketioOrigins = nconf.get('socket.io:origins');
 const websocketAddress = nconf.get('socket.io:address') || '';
@@ -22,7 +23,8 @@ apiController.loadConfig = async function (req) {
 	const config = {
 		relative_path,
 		upload_url,
-		assetBaseUrl: `${relative_path}/assets`,
+		asset_base_url,
+		assetBaseUrl: asset_base_url, // deprecate in 1.20.x
 		siteTitle: validator.escape(String(meta.config.title || meta.config.browserTitle || 'NodeBB')),
 		browserTitle: validator.escape(String(meta.config.browserTitle || meta.config.title || 'NodeBB')),
 		titleLayout: (meta.config.titleLayout || '{pageTitle} | {browserTitle}').replace(/{/g, '{').replace(/}/g, '}'),
diff --git a/src/prestart.js b/src/prestart.js
index 55dcb72235..b93bf05838 100644
--- a/src/prestart.js
+++ b/src/prestart.js
@@ -95,6 +95,7 @@ function loadConfig(configFile) {
 		nconf.set('secure', urlObject.protocol === 'https:');
 		nconf.set('use_port', !!urlObject.port);
 		nconf.set('relative_path', relativePath);
+		nconf.set('asset_base_url', `${relativePath}/assets`);
 		nconf.set('port', nconf.get('PORT') || nconf.get('port') || urlObject.port || (nconf.get('PORT_ENV_VAR') ? nconf.get(nconf.get('PORT_ENV_VAR')) : false) || 4567);
 
 		// cookies don't provide isolation by port: http://stackoverflow.com/a/16328399/122353
diff --git a/test/mocks/databasemock.js b/test/mocks/databasemock.js
index 911398b708..414cb7cfdd 100644
--- a/test/mocks/databasemock.js
+++ b/test/mocks/databasemock.js
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ nconf.defaults({
 const urlObject = url.parse(nconf.get('url'));
 const relativePath = urlObject.pathname !== '/' ? urlObject.pathname : '';
 nconf.set('relative_path', relativePath);
+nconf.set('asset_base_url', `${relativePath}/assets`);
 nconf.set('upload_path', path.join(nconf.get('base_dir'), nconf.get('upload_path')));
 nconf.set('upload_url', '/assets/uploads');
 nconf.set('url_parsed', urlObject);